


Two Hydrogen Atoms Connected to an Oxygen Atom, Forming a 104.45° Angle

by Nausicaa_E



Category: The Shape of Water (2017)
Genre: Epistolary, Gen, Post-Canon, Research, Some depictions of violence, more tags to be added as needed, not sure if "graphic" but not as bad as the original film by any means
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-11
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-06-08 16:08:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15246936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nausicaa_E/pseuds/Nausicaa_E
Summary: Gillian Vaca is a college senior writing about a highly specific and uninteresting topic (the history of marine biology research in Maryland) for their thesis. A chance mention of a Dr. Robert Hoffstetler's research on fish respiration sends them down a rabbit-hole investigation of what may just have been the biggest (non-publicized) scientific discovery to come out of the space race.(Essentially, the events of "The Shape of Water" as discovered by someone in that universe's 2018. Told through emails, scientific and historic documents, and interview transcripts.)





	1. Emails exchanged between Gillian Vaca and Anne O'Malley, NMAH

(10/10/18)

To whom it may concern at the NMAH archives: 

I am writing my senior thesis on the history of marine biology research in Maryland (don't let the "marine" fool you, I know it's a dry subject :P). I already know my way around the archives at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, but I was wondering if you have any records of some kind of marine biology project in Baltimore. I found a reference in a fairly technical paper on fish respiration from 1962 to "data graciously provided by Dr. Hoffstetler at the Applied Physics Laboratory in Baltimore", but my searches for a "Dr. Robert Hoffstetler" or "JHUAPL baltimore history" tend not to give meaningful results.

Any assistance you can provide would be great!

Sincerely,  
Gillian Vaca

 

(10/11/18)

Ms. Vaca,

Thank you for your question. The name rings a bell, but I'll have to look further when I get a chance. Just letting you know I'm on it.

Thanks for your interest!

Anne O'Malley  
Archivist, National Museum of American History

 

(10/11/18)

Dear Ms. O'Malley,

Thanks for keeping in touch. Also, it's Mx. (They/them pronouns.)

Sincerely,  
Mx. Gillian Vaca

 

(10/15/18)

Mx. Vaca,

First off, so sorry about that! I shouldn't have assumed.

Second, I've finally dug up the source I remember on Robert Hoffstetler -- it's not a scientific paper, or any material we have from the Special Projects Office. It's a Baltimore Sun clipping from 1962 (attached).

In brief, Robert Hoffstetler's murder was among the least bizarre of a quintet of pretty bizarre murders, called the October 10 Murders for about three months and then promptly forgotten. (Hey, look at that -- you emailed me on October 10! Crazy, huh?)

Anne O'Malley  
Archivist, National Museum of American History

 

**October 10 Murders Solved? "Motive, Not Methods", Say Cops**

The Baltimore Police Department has issued a tentative statement on the "October 10 Murders". Readers may remember last month when five separate people all died under strange circumstances on the night of October 10th -- one Dr. Robert Hoffstetler, found in a salt pile at the Canton harbor with three bullets in him and marks from a cattle prod; two Russian nationals found in a car nearby, one with a single bullet in him and the other with two; one US Army Col. Richard Strickland, found near a canal lock bearing four lacerations on the windpipe; and one Elisa Esposito, a maid, whose body was never found.

According to the BPD, the CIA moved in due to the presence of the Russian nationals and the army official, and at present, information on any of the people at the Canton harbor is unavailable to the press. However, the police investigation into the death of Esposito revealed that she worked at the same facility as Col. Strickland, and had reportedly drawn his unwelcome attention. Col. Strickland had already come under fire shortly before his death due to accusations of incompetence, and these allegations of misconduct add an unsightly blemish on the reputation of what should be our nation's finest.

A coworker of Esposito's, who declined to be named but who was confirmed to be at the scene shortly after Col. Strickland's death, opines that Col. Strickland shot Esposito out of jealousy, and she survived long enough to avenge herself before falling into the canal. Divers searched for her body, but were unable to recover it, and the police believe it was swept out to sea in the heavy rains that night.

A swirl of speculation still surrounds the killing of Dr. Hoffstetler and the two Russians. The popular imagination turns to espionage, and of course links it to Col. Strickland (and in some of the more fanciful reports Miss Esposito as well), but there are many other reasons that two Russians and a scientist could end up dead in the same area. Drugs, gambling, all manner of crime … the BPD have been unable to turn up any direct leads, but the lack of any clear information about Dr. Hoffstetler's past is in and of itself suspicious.

The final wrinkle in the whole sordid saga is the unusual manner of Col. Strickland's death, which still reportedly has the police baffled. His throat was cut four separate times. One Officer Coombs, present at the scene, told our reporter, "It was the damnedest thing I've ever seen. Dunno how a little lady like [Esposito] could have cut up his throat like that. I grew up on a farm out in Idaho -- if I'd seen those kind of markings on a tree, I'd've said it was a mountain lion scratching them up. Four claws, big long lines, just like that. Guess it was one of those hysterical strength things. Y'know, they said the lady had scars all up and down her throat? Makes you wonder if it wasn't some kind of poetic justice sort of thing. Real Batman-and-Joker stuff."

Col. Strickland leaves behind a wife, Elaine, two children, and several commendations for service in both the Second World War and the Korean War. Dr. Hoffstetler leaves behind many invaluable contributions to the field of pulmonology. Esposito leaves behind close friends, who believe she is somewhere better.

_Ed Malone is a crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun._

**BALTIMORE SUN**  
**Monday, November 12th, 1962**

 

(10/16/18)

Dear Ms. O'Malley,

Thanks for self-correcting; I'm trying to be more up-front about my preferred term of address. (Hanging on until I can just say "Doctor". :P) 

The article you found was … not what I was expecting, but really interesting. Like, it's the _Sun_ , but it's one of those "too horrible to be fake" things. Any word on what those "invaluable contributions to the field of pulmonology" might have been?

Thanks so much for your time!

Sincerely,  
Mx. Gillian Vaca

P.S. Also, can I just say how well you prove the theory of nominative determinism? If I was named "Anomaly" I feel like I'd have to be the person to dig through old records for weird stuff.

 

(10/17/18)

Mx. (future Dr., I'm sure) Vaca,

Sadly not -- Hoffstettler is a coauthor on a number of papers, but I can't find much original work, and next to nothing about marine biology.

If you need me for anything more, I'll be here. Best of luck with your thesis!

Anne O'Malley  
Archivist, National Museum of American History

P.S. Yes, I know, it's a bit of a moniker to carry around. Your joke is appreciated, though! XD


	2. Emails exchanged between Gillian Vaca and Calvin Peters, BCDH&CD

(10/21/18)

To whom it may concern at the Baltimore City Department of Housing & Community Development:

I am writing my senior thesis on the history of marine biology research in Maryland and am trying to find out more about the research of a Dr. Robert Hoffstetler. One way I am going about this is trying to find his lab and get records from there; I know he worked with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory somewhere in Baltimore, but the Johns Hopkins archives people have been unable to find any information.

The lab would have been used in 1962 (probably before and after that too, I just know 1962 for sure).

Thank you so much for any help you can provide.

Sincerely,  
Mx. Gillian Vaca

 

(10/22/18)

Thank you for your interest. Do you have an idea of the size/capabilities of the facility in question?

Calvin Peters, Baltimore City Department of Housing & Community Development

 

(10/22/18)

I really don't, sorry. There would have been a military presence, if that helps? All I know about what it did was one reference to fish respiration research. Could've been a small lab, could've been a huge thing.

Sincerely,  
Mx. Gillian Vaca

 

(10/22/18)

Understood.

Calvin Peters, Baltimore City Department of Housing & Community Development

 

(10/24/18)

Okay, back atcha! I've identified a couple of properties associated with the JHUAPL in the right time period. However, if you're saying the Johns Hopkins people couldn't help you, I'm a bit at a loss, since they're all still in use, or show records that they were only used for aerospace research.

Any other questions, I'm happy to help.

Calvin Peters, Baltimore City Department of Housing & Community Development

 

(10/26/18)

So I went back and talked to Johns Hopkins, and they brought up a list of independent facilities that had done contract work with the APL/military. I could find most of them with simple Googling, and Johns Hopkins has most of the records, but one of them was more elusive. Do you know anything about a place called "Occam Development Labs"?

Sincerely,  
Mx. Gillian Vaca

 

(10/29/18)

Aha! Now we're getting somewhere. Yes, it fits the time period, and we've got documentation of a big ol' facility. We're talking wind tunnels, on-site power plant, water pressure tanks … got converted into a private marine engineering company in the 80s, name of Razor's Edge. A quick Google search turns up their website; might be worth a message if you wanna try asking for private archives.

Hope that helps!

Calvin Peters, Baltimore City Department of Housing & Community Development

 

(10/29/18)

Thank you so much for your help. That sounds like a great place to start.

Sincerely,  
Mx. Gillian Vaca


	3. An email sent from Anne O'Malley to Gillian Vaca

(10/30/18)

Gillian (can I call you Gillian?) --

This is Anne O'Malley from the National Museum of American History (personal email, since this isn't really work-related). Somebody at the American Visionary Art Museum got in touch with me fairly soon after you did about the October 10 Murders as part of a final go-over of their exhibit plan; the exhibition opens tomorrow and I only just now remembered you might want to take a look. It's called "Beautiful Beasts: the Marine Monsters of Giles Napier".

All the best, and Happy Halloween!  
Anne


	4. Transcript of an interview log with Kelly Thompson, docent, AVAM

_I arrived at the "Beautiful Beasts: the Marine Monsters of Giles Napier" exhibit in the morning, before the afternoon Halloween programming. Thompson agreed to let me tape our conversation once I explained that I might end up using it as an academic source -- I haven't changed my thesis topic, but it might be something to write about next semester._

_\-- Gillian Vaca_

 

**GV: So, how would you summarize the exhibit?**

KT: Giles Napier was an artist active here in Baltimore in the 60's and 70's, though we've been able to find samples of his ad work from as far back as 1947. Some of it was complicated by the fact that he signed a number of his later paintings as Giles Corey --

 **GV: The dude who got pressed to death in the Salem Witch Trials!**  

KT: Indeed, though Napier was probably thinking more of his portrayal in _The Crucible_. Napier wasn't a big enough name in the era of McCarthyism to ever come up against the Un-American Activities people, but he was clearly there in spirit. His personal work didn't receive critical acclaim until the mid-to-late 60's, and as you can see, there's a big focus on monsters.

**GV: Yeah. Can't imagine why you opened the exhibit today. *laughs***

KT: *laughs* Can't think of a reason at all! Nah, seriously -- the focus on monsters ties into the "Giles Corey" pseudonym. Napier was closeted for the vast majority of his painting career, and only came out very late in life; both the _The Crucible_ reference and the monsters speaks to that sense of persecution.

**GV: Oh, I grok him _there_.**

KT: Pitchforks and torches, indeed. 

**GV: Do you know why he focused on aquatic creatures?**

KT: Napier hasn't given a good answer to that. Perhaps it's living here by the Bay? Maybe he just saw _The Creature from the Black Lagoon_ and was inspired.

**GV: Do you know if he had any marine biology background?**

KT: That I don't, though I'd guess not; why do you ask?

 **GV: Some of these look … really realistic, to the extent where he'd have to have seen a lot of rare aquatic animals up close to get the details looking good.**  

KT: Is there a specific one you mean?

**GV: The big Abe Sapien-looking dude, mostly, though some of the glowing-tentacled things look a lot like real deep-sea organisms.**

KT: Abe Sapien?

**GV: Never read _Hellboy_ , huh?**

KT: Can't say I have … do you mean Charlie?

**GV: I mean the big blue fish humanoid?**

KT: Yeah, that's Charlie -- at least, Charlie is what Napier calls him in ancillary notes, after the tuna mascot.

**GV: That seems … macabre.**

KT: I mean, at first glance, yeah, but I don't think Napier intends for us to eat Charlie.

 **GV: Well, is he not a snack?**  

KT: *laughs* Well, that's certainly a common interpretation of the piece.

**GV: Gotta ask, since we're on the topic of fishman sex appeal now -- anything about the woman _in flagrante_ with him? She's the only human in these paintings. Is she supposed to symbolize anything?**

KT: Oh, no, she was a real woman. Napier's neighbor and good friend, up until her tragic murder in 1962. Well, I say murder; Napier calls it a disappearance, but from what I know about the incident it would be hard to disappear so thoroughly and still be alive. There's a newspaper article about it over this way …

**GV: [sotto voce] Holy shit.**

_There, in the case, was the same article that Anne O'Malley sent me. I attempted to conceal my prior knowledge of the incident from Thompson; still not entirely sure why. I think this is also why I asked if Napier had marine biology background; he could have been connected to Hoffstetler's mysterious research somehow._

_\-- GV_

KT: Hm?

**GV: Just … that's … gruesome.**

KT: That it is, I'm afraid. Napier hasn't overtly confirmed it, but we think that her presence with Charlie is something of Napier grieving through his art. You've seen how Charlie shows up throughout Napier's body of work; we think Charlie might have been a kind of self-insert for him, so this painting is him comforting her here.

**GV: So they're _not_ boning in that painting? Or cartilaging, if Charlie is _Chondrichthyes_ …**

KT: Not in the grieving interpretation, no. Of course, it could also be that Charlie represents comfort given to the outcast, present for Napier and Esposito alike, so -- who knows. Napier confirms the monstrousness-as-metaphor-for-prejudice-and-alienation interpretation of his work, but otherwise prefers for the viewer to draw their own interpretation. 

**GV: Hey, hold on: you keep referring to Napier in the present tense, kinda more than academic diction would require … didn't the brochure say he was born in 1935…?**

KT: He was! Giles Napier is the feistiest 113-year-old I've ever seen.

 **GV: He's still alive?**  

KT: Certainly is!

**GV: You know if he gives interviews?**

KT: He might; here. He's … mercurial.

_Thompson gave me a phone number._

_\-- GV_

**GV: Fair enough; thanks.**

KT: No problem. Anywhere else you wanted to take this interview?

**GV: Nah, I'm not really … big on art theory … No, hold on, one more thing: it's Halloween, I gotta ask the Big Spooky Question.**

KT: [in an affected vampire accent] Should I answer in an affected vampire accent?

_I should mention at this point that Thompson was wearing a Dracula-esque costume._

_\-- GV_

**GV: … What are the chances that Charlie was real?**

KT: [in an affected vampire accent] I should answer in an affected vampire accent, then.

**GV: It's just … all the paintings here are as cool as heck, but the ones with Charlie have a kind of … "I saw this" look. Like how "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke" gives you the impression that Richard Dadd had actually been there, or had in his head. It's that kinda feel.**

_Okay, so sue me, I don't actually get this impression from the Dadd painting. I was stealing from Terry Pratchett's description in_ The Wee Free Men _._

 _\-- GV_  

KT: [still in an affected vampire accent] You're not the first person to ask that, and Napier … does enjoy giving teasing hints to the idea that Charlie was a real being. I don't personally believe it -- discredits the human imagination -- but I think Napier is flattered that his work provokes harmless conspiracy theories. [returning to her normal voice] Your specific comparison to Dadd … I'm not aware of Napier having a history of mental illness, and, y'know, someone's mental illness is quite often wholly unrelated to their artistic skills. I don't think Charlie was real in the sense of "Napier really believed him to be there"; I do think Charlie is real in the sense of "Charlie is real in our hearts, wherever we love ourselves for being what we are". [pause] That was sappy, but I really love Napier's work, alright?

**GV: Oh, I totally understand.**

KT: Anything else or should I leave you to enjoy the exhibit in peace?

**GV: I mean, I do want to hear more about the specific pieces …**

 

_The rest of the interview was about Napier's artistic periods, which Thompson did not provide any temporal context for._

_\-- GV_


End file.
